A Cultural Resource Inventory: Philadelphia's Fairmount Park Expands Its Resource Preservation Strategy Through GPS/GIS Integration

Author: Peter Godfrey
Organization: Camp Dresser & McKee

1500 JFK Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19102
USA

Phone: 215-636-0600
Fax: 215-636-9811
godfreyp@cdm.com

Philadelphia's Fairmount Park system contains 8,900 acres of noncontiguous land holdings. In 1999, the Commission completed a GIS application that created an inventory of all structures (buildings that have or were meant to have roofs) and is used to assist in historic preservation, cyclical maintenance, and capital planning. This effort has been expanded to inventory all "man-made" features, such as statues, trails, walls, wellheads, stairs, etc., within the park. GIS, GPS, and Windows technology has been integrated for data collection and data display purposes. The presentation will discuss historic and cultural resource preservation needs, database design, GPS field data collection, and the resulting applications. Also, future park GIS efforts into the next century will be mentioned.